As it stands, Evansville Regional Airport is the only facility in Indiana without an overlay zone. According to the airport authority, the lack of an overlay zone can impede access to grants.
Such a zone comes in the form of an ordinance, with maps detailing how parcels of property are affected. These are drafted by the Area Plan Commission with the Airport Authority.
Depending on the area of the overlay zone, some activities and constructions are restricted on private properties, whether residential or business.
The first draft of the ordinance was presented in July. At the time, more than 11,000 properties were included, with 8,226 parcels in the unincorporated county, and 3,178 in the city, according to the County Commission.
The County Commissioners rejected this draft in August for being too restrictive — raising concerns about vague language and possible overreaches which could damage property values.
“This provision prohibits the reconstruction of damaged or destroyed property and leaves the underlying land worthless,” said Musgrave at the August meeting, referring to specific points in Section C of the draft ordinance.
“The airport authorities executive director has agreed that a future revised ordinance is desirable,” said Musgrave. “In effect, the airport wishes to withdraw the proposed ordinance.”
The Airport Authority and Plan Commission (APC) have since revised it.
“(We) made pretty dramatic changes, quite honestly,” said Airport Executive director Nate Hahn in October, letting the Area Plan commission know about the changes, which made the overlay zone more permissive. “Both in the field, look at the map itself, our zones, we took those down to the minimums of … federal regulations.”
The process is for the APC to vote to recommend an ordinance to a governing body — whether the City Council or County Commissioners. In this case, both of these elected bodies had to approve ordinances of their own.
At the October 5 meeting, the APC passed the city version, but decided to table the decision on the county ordinance for another month to give property owners a chance to ask questions of Hahn and the airport authority.
After the APC recommended the city ordinance, the City Council approved their version in mid November.
Hahn said they’ve been communicating and trying to assuage concerns, ad made up a list of frequently asked questions on their website.
In November the APC heard many more concerns, such as for devaluing property.
The APC voted to postpone the ordinance for the county and will hold another hearing on the matter on February First.
Justin Elpers is on the APC and County Commission. He said during this time, property owners and their attorneys can ask for questions about the revised version of the overlay zone.
“There’s always a possibility it could be tabled again,” he said.
Once the draft if approved by the APC, it's taken as a recommendation by the County Commission, which can then vote for or against the ordinance.
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